Harmonious or Disjointed? Framing Dynamics Within an Integrated Science and Engineering Unit

• In Event: 21.062 - MTCC Roundtable Session Six
  In Roundtable Session: 21.062-13 - STEM Teacher Education and Cognition

Abstract

The Next Generation Science Standards present an integrated approach to science and engineering education in which science is foundational to engineering and engineering contextualizes and reinforces science ideas. Our research explores how one elementary school teacher and her students’ moment-to-moment understanding of “what is going on” shape the kinds of disciplinary knowledge they recognize to be important and the work they perceive to be required during an integrated science and engineering unit. Analysis of whole class and small group video transcripts and artifacts revealed that an integrated approach may be less straightforward than what the NGSS actually depict. We discuss these findings and what they might mean when engineering is seen as an avenue for science explorations in classrooms.

Authors

• jennifer schellinger, The Florida State University

• Lama Ziad Jaber, Florida State University

• Sherry A. Southerland, Florida State University